As the courgettes and squashes that I planted in the straw bale bed start to die back, I’ve made an unexpected discovery. In my enthusiasm to get a good layer of logs and prunings as the base of the bed, I must have included some freshly cut branches from the fig tree which appear to have rooted and are now sending up a grove of young trees. Whether they survive disinterment remains to be seen, but if you are planning your own straw bale garden, it may be best to make sure that the logs you use are well and truly dead. On the other hand it may be an interesting new propagation technique – I also found a thicket of young fuschsias.
